Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf is a New York Plaintiff's personal injury law firm specializing in automobile accidents, construction accidents, medical malpractice, products liability, police misconduct and all types of New York personal injury litigation.

Articles Posted in Personal Injury

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Nap%20Manny%20Product%20Defect.jpgNap Nanny and Chill recliners create a substantial product hazard. The products have design defects, as a result of which their use presents a risk of personal injury to infants. Further, the instructions and warnings are inadequate according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

The recall is part of settlement of an administrative complaint filed in 2012 by CPSC against Baby Matters LLC of Berwyn, Pa., which sought a recall of of the Nap Nanny and Nap Nanny Chill infant recliners affter the death of five infants. CPSC staff and Baby Matters LLC reached a settlement agreement that includes the recall and ends the legal proceeding against the company.

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As we previously posted on our blog, our managing partner , New York Personal Injury Lawyer Ben Rubinowitz, will be the co-director of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy’s National Session this summer at the NITA Education Center in Boulder, CO from July 24th to August 1st, 2013.

In this video, participants and faculty members including Ben Rubinowitz, explain why lawyers should attend this prestigious training program.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE_g_PRCXa4

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When OSHA inspectors visited RWS, a plant that makes wood shavings for animal bedding, they found explosive combustible shavings all over the equipment and the floor with accumulation reaching as high as one foot in some areas. Adding to that employees were authorized to smoke in locations where excessive wood dust and wood shavings created a high risk of fire.

RWS Manufacturing plant in Queensbury, NY,deliberately, seriously and repeatedly violated worker safety and health standards and is now facing $233,870 in fines by OSHA.

Since its opening in Quennsburry, NY, 5 years ago, RWS Manufacturing plant has been the objects of multiple complaints by neighbors. It also has a long history of issues with the town’s enforcement codes related to noise, smoke and lack of groundwater control.

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In an Upstate New York truck accident that happened several days ago, a trailer disconnected from the rig that was pulling it and crashed into a minivan killing 7. Investigation will determine if the cause of the accident was mechanical failure or driver action.

According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, mechanical failures are the cause of only 1% of fatal accidents involving large trucks and among mechanical failures, the truck’s couplings, hitches or chains are the cause of 1 in a thousand fatal accidents.

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In New York State, cell phone related car accidents have increased by 143% from 2005 to 2011. In 2011, there were 25,165 fatal and personal injury crashes involving distracted driving in New York, compared to 4,628 caused by alcohol-related driving.

Governer Cuomo wants to crack down on drivers who are using their cell phones while they are driving and put their life and the lives of others at risk. Therefore the governor of New York just announced that texting while driving will cost 5 points instead of 3 for all drivers effective June 1st. Adding to that drivers with probationary or junior licences will get 60-day suspensions for a first conviction and revocations of 60 days (for junior licenses) or 6 months (for probationary licenses) for subsequent convictions within 6 months of the time a license is restored after suspension.

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The new CPSC Pool or Spa Submersions: Estimated Injuries and Reported Fatalities, 2013 Report indicate that 75% of victims of drowning in a pool or spa are younger than 5 years old. Government data also show that the majority of African American and Hispanic children between 5 and 14 years old don’t know how to swim and therefore have a much higher risk of drowning in a pool.

Every year more than 5000 children visit the emergency room after a pool or spa related injury and an estimated average of 390 children drown. Most of the accidents happen in backyard pools.

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In its new pool safety campaign, The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is asking parents and families to teach their children how to swim, to install a fence around backyard pools and spas and to watch children when they play around the pool.

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Diagnostic errors are not a new problem, in 1991 the Harvard medical Practice Study, investigated Medical Malpractice in New York Hospitals and found out that diagnostic errors were accounting for 14% of physicians errors and that 75% of them were due to doctors negligence.

In 1999 a study from the Institute of Medicine “To Err is Human”, looks at diagnostic errors and classifies them in four different categories: error or delay in diagnosis, failure to employ indicated tests, use of outmoded tests or therapy and failure to act on results of monitoring or testing.

Despite these studies, diagnostic errors have been largely ignored until recent research calculated the impact of such errors. Results from a 2009 report funded by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality showed that 28% of diagnostic mistakes were life-threatening or had resulted in death or permanent disability.

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Recreational Water Illnesses (RWI) mostly caused by germs in contaminated water as well as personal injury such as drowning, slips, trips and falls occur every summer in pools, jacuzzis, water parks, water play areas, interactive fountains or lakes, rivers and recreational areas at the ocean. In order to prevent these illnesses and injuries the Center for Disease Control is running its annual prevention campaign as Memorial Day marks the annual pool and beach season’s opening day. This year’s theme is “How We Swimmers Contaminate Pools

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A recent study from the CDC that analyzed filter backwash samples found e-coli in more than 58% of the samples. This rate goes up to 73% when patrons are primarily children. Detection of E-coli signifies that swimmers introduce fecal material in the water either by washing off of their bodies or because of a diarrheal fecal incident. The latest is the most dangerous because it increases the risk for pathogen transmissions. Other very common germs brought by fecal material in pool or water play areas are Cryptosporidium or Crypto, Giardia, Shigella and Norovirus, according to the latest Surveillance for Waterborne Disease Outbreaks and Other Health Events Associated with Recreational Water Summary.

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Severely injured women are 21% less likely to receive appropriate care in a trauma center than men. Results are similar for women injured after a fall or a car accident, across all income levels and also when comparing rural versus urban patients according to a study , led by Andrea Hill, MSc, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow at the Sunnybrook Health Science Centre and the University of Toronto in Canada, and presented yesterday at the American Thoracic Society International Conference .

The researchers studied more than 98,800 patients admitted to trauma centers for severe injuries. Results show that 49.6% of women and 63.2% of men received care after being severely injured.

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young%20workers%20accident%20prevention.jpgEvery 9 minutes a young worker suffers injury at work. In 2010, 328 teens died and 110’000 were injured at their workplace. Most accidents are due to unsafe equipment, insufficient training and supervision, dangerous work not appropriate for teens, pressure to perform better and stressful environment. Accidents happen mostly in retail, restaurant & fast food, cleaning & maintenance, outdoor work, construction, industry, agriculture and in offices. There is an increase of accidents in the summer as young people are finishing school and starting a new job or simply trying to make a little extra money during their vacations.

Young workers are twice as likely to get hurt on the job than older workers and often they are not aware of their rights. For this reason OSHA just launched a campaign that includes a special young workers web section as well as specific brochures for young workers on landscaping, retail work and grain engulfment. Brochures on landscaping and retail also exist in Spanish